Katamari Forever Preview for the PS3

Katamari Forever may be the series’ first installment on next-gen consoles, but it is more a compilation than an entirely new game. After all, in Japan the title of the game is not Katamari Forever; it’s called Katamari Damacy Tribute. That said, the games does feature a completely new storyline and some new gameplay features. Not to mention that for those who have yet to play Katamari, this would probably be a good time to do so, as the game essentially takes everything the series has been so well known for and lumps it into one big package.

So, what is the storyline this time around? In the first game, called Katamari Damacy, the King Of All Cosmos lost all the stars and it was your duty, as Prince, to retrieve them. To achieve this you were given a large round object, called a katamari. As it rolled and more and more objects stuck to it, it became large enough that the Prince was able to use it to catch the stars. Does it make sense? Not really, but in the context of the game’s wacky world it’s actually quite logical. Anyway, things take a rather more disturbing turn in Katamari Forever, when the King falls into a coma and the Prince and his cousins decide to build a robot version of him to temporarily take his place. Things take an even worse turn when the King’s robot version (or RoboKing, as he’s called) goes and accidentally obliterates the galaxy. And so, again, it’s your job as Prince to both restore the galaxy and bring the King out of his coma.

In order to this the Prince once again takes control of a katamari, but this time he will be using it to traverse a monochromatic dimension and steadily bring back color to the world. As you roll your katamari about the level you collect objects, and for every object you catch every other object of the same kind in the level gets it’s color returned.

Having said that, the graphics have a much more cel-shaded look to them. While in past Katamari games you went from country to country and planet to planet, in Katamari Forever you travel from page to page in a pop-up style book; a new and much welcomed graphical aspect for the series.

Katamari Forever is scheduled for release sometime later this year, for the Playstation 3.